The key holder art includes key holders for one or more keys in which the keys are each movable between an extended position and a folded position. The following U.S. States patents show example key holders that are in the patent literature: U.S. Pat. No. 3,354,679, granted Nov. 28, 1967, to James E. Le Fave; U.S. Pat. No. 3,745,799 granted Jul. 17, 1973 to Carl R. Fagiano; U.S. Pat. No. 4,628,717 granted Dec. 16, 1986 to Alvin S. Blum; U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,913, granted Mar. 3, 1987, to Russell T. Wing and David H. Palmer; U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,803, granted Nov. 17, 1987 to Shih-Fu Wang; U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,190, granted Jun. 1, 1993, to Raymond Hoffpauir, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,702, granted Oct. 18, 1994 to Augusto Escribens; U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,291, granted Jan. 30, 1996, to Barnard Voigt; U.S. Pat. No. 5,943,889, granted Aug. 31, 1999 to Kuang-Yen Chiu; U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,756 B1, granted May 29, 2001 to Scott Caudle; U.S. Pat. No. 6,691,539, granted Feb. 17, 2004 to Dirk Jacob and Elrich Muller; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,141 B1, granted Mar. 16, 2004, to Dick Jacob, Elrich Muller, and Jeffery D. Plate.
There is a need for providing an improved way of mounting a key and a coil spring for moving the key from a stowed or folded position into an extended position. There is also a need for providing an improved lock for locking the key in the folded position which is easily operable to unlock the key, allowing a spring to move the key from its folded position into its extended position. It is an object of the present invention to fulfill these needs.
Herein the term “key unit” is generic to both a key member having a head and a lock engaging portion extending from the head, and such a key member in combination with a key head holder which receives the head of the key member.